15-month-old children start recognizing anger

Recent research of scientists from University of Washington have shown that children starting from 15 months old learn to recognize feelings of anger in the people who surround them. On this basis, kids adjust their behavior.

These study results surprised the scientists, because kids of this age are just learning to talk, and it was believed that these cognitive skills were not peculiar to them.

The American scientists have found that at the age of 15 months, babies are able to determine whether a person next to them is angry. And not only to determine this information, but also to use it.

These studies were published in the American scientific magazine "Cognitive Development". These results are the first evidence that very young children begin to understand people around them and motivation of their actions. As stated in the article, in the course of the experiment scientists have studied the behavior of 150 children of both sexes aged 15 months.

According to the leading researcher of the university Betty Repacholi, starting from 15 months, kids are getting interested in the social side of life and in how people respond to different events. Also, Professor Repacholi emphasizes that those children who do not have basic skills in speaking, use both social and visual signals to understanding other people. This suggests that even at this early age children develop complex cognitive skills. An indicator that little children have determines the availability of such skills. It also helps to identify children who will obey the rules less willingly.

Andrew Meltzoff also tells about self-control, as a major mental new formation and cognitive skills of children up to three years. The research data showed the same results, according to which the majority of 15-month-old children can already control their behavior. Also, the scientists have determined that there are important individual variability, which is common to all the kids, and that in the future it will determine the differences of children, as well as their readiness for school.

But the American experts are not ready to rest and are already planning to conduct new researches with children after they go to school to find out whether their cognitive skills of 15-months age affected their further socialization and mental abilities.